After the retirement of Ken Ritch at the end of the school year following eight years as the school’s athletic director, longtime head football coach Andy Dorsey took Ritch’s former position and Dorsey’s former defensive coordinator, Chris Brown, was elevated to head football coach.

Brown was the defensive coordinator for the Hornets for seven years. He said it “has always been a dream of mine” to be a head coach.

“I feel very blessed and very fortunate,” he said.

Brown, a West Georgia graduate, was the linebackers coach for the Hornets in 2001, and then went to McEachern for four years as the secondary coach and strength and conditioning coach before returning to Hiram in 2006.

After working together for so many years, Dorsey and Brown said they developed a good friendship which makes for a better working relationship. Brown said having this relationship will be “invaluable” as he takes on his first head coaching job.

“I think he will be very successful. We wouldn’t have chosen him if we didn’t feel like he was the right one for the job. I have a lot of trust in him,” Dorsey said.

Now that Brown is the new whistleblower for the Hornets, he said there will be “a lot of changes” to the program – some decided on while Dorsey was still head coach and some of his own.

Brown said there will be some aspects of their game plan that change, but the overall scheme will be similar to the past years under Dorsey.

After finishing the summer workouts and being on the Hiram football staff for several years, Brown knows what to expect from his players and they know what to expect from him as the head coach. With all the formalities out of the way, the Hornets are ready to play some football.

*We welcome your comments on the stories and issues of the day and seek to provide a forum for the community to voice opinions. All comments are subject to moderator approval before being made visible on the website but are not edited. The use of profanity, obscene and vulgar language, hate speech, and racial slurs is strictly prohibited. Advertisements, promotions, spam, and links to outside websites will also be rejected. Please read our terms of service for full guides